No death penalty in Wilde case: Feds seeking life in prison for Kneeland pot grow shooting

Federal prosecutors have decided Mikal Xylon Wilde should not be put to death if convicted on charges that he murdered one of his workers at a Kneeland marijuana growing operation in 2010.

The U.S. Attorney's Office made Wilde the first Humboldt County resident in decades to be federally prosecuted for murder when it secured a six-count indictment against him and took over his state murder case last year. Wilde, 31, stands accused of fatally shooting Mario Roberto Juarez-Madrid and seriously wounding Fernando Lopez, both of Santa Rosa, Guatemala, at the scene of a large-scale marijuana farm in Kneeland on Aug. 25, 2010.

The shootings allegedly occurred after a dispute over whether Wilde would pay the men he'd hired to tend the more than 1,500 marijuana plants on his sprawling property.

The internal process of determining whether to pursue capital punishment in an eligible federal case is confidential, but the final decision ultimately rested with U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, who makes the determination based on input from the prosecuting attorneys, a Capital Case Unit made up of senior U.S. attorneys and a federal Capital Review Committee.

Calls placed to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California were not returned Thursday. The federal public defenders representing Wilde also did not return calls.

Shortly after his arrest the day following the shootings, Wilde was charged by the Humboldt County District Attorney's Office with murder and attempted murder. At a preliminary hearing to determine if there was sufficient evidence to hold Wilde to stand trial on state charges, prosecutors relied on testimony from two eyewitnesses, including Lopez, and introduced evidence that Wilde made a confession to investigators following his arrest.

Wilde was indicted federally March 1, 2012, on charges of murder during the commission of a narcotics offense, conspiracy to manufacture and distribute 1,000 or more marijuana plants, possession with intent to distribute 1,000 or more marijuana plants, and the use of a firearm in relation to a drug trafficking offense.

Wilde faces a maximum sentence of life in federal prison, as well as a fine of up to $10 million, if convicted.

Testimony during Wilde's preliminary hearing indicated that the shooting came after a dispute broke out between him and his employees. According to the testimony, Wilde told Juarez-Madrid, Lopez and Christopher Bigelow, a third man hired to work on the property, that he didn't have money to fuel a truck the men used to water the plants.

Consequently, he told the men they would have to irrigate crops on the sprawling property by hand.

The men told Wilde they didn't want to work for him anymore, according to the testimony, and asked to be paid for the work they'd already performed and taken home to the Sacramento area. Wilde said he would pay them and take them home but allegedly returned to the property the next day and opened fire.

According to court records, Wilde filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection in 2008, reporting $638,000 in liabilities versus $428,700 in assets, the bulk of his assets coming in the form of his Kneeland home. About a year after emerging from bankruptcy, Wilde was listed as the principal owner of Ashland Ranch LLC when it purchased property in Kneeland -- 663 acres of land that would eventually become the site of the marijuana growing operation located up Greenwood Heights Road from Wilde's home.

Court records indicate Wilde's financial problems persisted. The IRS placed a tax lien for more than $16,000 on his home in January 2010. Days after the August 2010 shootings, Wilde's bank filed a notice of default on his house and demanded $33,633 in overdue mortgage payments.